Don't go west

Time moves incredibly slowly if you work at Westfield. I say this with reference to my mishap at Westfield Chatswood at the beginning of this month at which point I suggested that I believed that Westfield didn't even have a photography policy. I've been sending an email reminder to the marketing chick once a week since then and she keeps coming back with "PR still haven't gotten back to me about that" or "head office haven't gotten back to me about that". You'd think someone at Westfield would have had the time to write one up by now!

I thought I'd try a different tack, so I asked for a permit application form to photograph in the centre. Apparently those don't exist either. So... how exactly did I end up in the centre management office for breaking their photography policy if they 1) don't even have a policy and 2) don't have a permit application form so that I can avoid breaking the policy that they don't have?

She did definitely say that I needed a permit to photograph in the centre, but how exactly can I get a permit if I can't apply for it? The whole situation is very Catch 22.

In other news, I'm doing all right in my new job. I've just completed my first week and I'm not in tears so I guess that's a good sign! Bit light on the writing at the moment - haven't been given anything meaty and have had to ask for more work a couple of times but tomorrow we are meeting with some clients, which I've been told will bring me more work than I probably want.

Everyone's pretty nice but I realise now why there's no real politics or bitchiness - I don't think that people are really close to foster the opposite reaction in others. Oh dear, I didn't explain that very well and I don't think I can.

I'll try an example; at Red Apple, there were definite cliques that governed the people you drank coffee with and whose party you went to on the weekend. The problem with cliques is that you make good friends with some people, but you sort of alienate others. I found that I was kind of doing both because I had friends who I hung out with, but it meant that sometimes I would unwittingly exclude others.

At Loyalty, you can see how each of the departments work with each other but I don't see any obvious cliquiness. Which accounts for the lack of bitchiness, but also means that there's no specific feeling of belonging. Is it important to belong? Hmm, yes, I think so. But maybe it's better this way at work. I can find belonging elsewhere, then.